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Saturday, 18 April 2015

AtoZChallenge2015 - P is for Paladine

Paladine is one of the major deities from the Dragonlance series of fantasy books. He is the leader of those gods who stand for Good. He is the older brother to Takhisis, leader of the deities of Evil, and Gilean, leader of the deities of Neutrality, and father of three lesser deities of Good.

He was one of the first gods summoned from the Beyond by the High God, the entity who created the universe.

During the Dragonlance novels, Paladine appears as his avatar Fizban the Fabulous, a somewhat clumsy and absent minded wizard, so that he can help in the quest.

He is the patron deity of the Order of the Rose, an order of knighthood dedicated to good, and he is also the creator of the elven race, who call him E'li. Each deity in the Dragonlance universe has a divine portfolio of concepts over which they hold dominion and Paladine's are as follows: order; hope; light; redemption; good dragons; kingship.

He shows his very great character by agreeing to become mortal to maintain the balance of Good, Neutrality and Evil when his sister Takhisis is stripped of her immortality as punishment for her crimes. He becomes Valthonis, a mortal elf, and still tries to be a force for good, travelling all over the Ansalon to spread peace and wisdom.

I remember reading The Dragonlance Chronicles as a teenager and being utterly fascinated by the depth of the characters and the universe around them. Took me a while to get my head round the whole Good, Neutral and Evil set up, but it is a very clever device to enhance the action. If I am honest, it was a bit too real for me at times, wow do those characters go through some rough patches ;).

I've never read the series, but now I'm tempted. I love sci-fi and fantasy, because someone has to create everything. Every book is a mystery, since I can't predict what will happen. When there is so much character detail created, it can me awe inspiring.

I read the first few books of the Dragonlance sereis as a teenager too. Your post brought back such far away memories :-)And hey, I've never truly grasped how much Tolkien there is in that universe before.

They are far away memories for me too ... I don't think I've picked up these books since I was a teen or just a little older either :). They are still all on the shelf, maybe I should nose at them again. I think Tolkien has made it in to a hell of a lot of fantasy :)

I read the first book in the Dragonlance series when I was around 12, and it totally blew my mind. I think it helped spark my current love of fantasy as well. I didn't realize Fizban was an avatar of Paladine. Love that wizard. He makes an appearance in the Death Gate Cycle series. It had been so long since I read any of the Dragonlance books that I was like, "You!" but couldn't remember specifics about him. Such great books. :)

The only library I've ever used is my old school library and we had some classic sci-fi, but no high fantasy. We've always lived in the country so no local library :( I believe the one in the town is good though.

It makes me sad that so many people haven't heard of Dragonlance. I didn't like it (it was basically the authors' Dungeons & Dragons campaign transcribed in book form) but the fact that no one heard of it is depressing. \\I guess it was only a big deal in my circles.

I haven't heard of this series, either. But as I'm on the very cusp of fantasy/science fiction reading/watching, I'm feeling pretty good that I've heard of at least some of your deities so far. P already!

To be honest, I tried reading the first one of these books and never got far, but to hear more about the series makes me think I should give it another try. I had no idea of the depth of the story. Wow.

My husband is very old-school as well. He plays a game called MajorMUD, where you make yourself a particular character. The Paladines are 'holy warriors' with all kinds of god-like powers. It's nice to find out a little more about that name and where it comes from.

New series to me, intriguing concept and neat good god guy. It was also a nicely written post. I am visiting during A to Z - I've noticed that you and I comment on some other blogs, so I decided to visit when I passed the "P" post... glad I did. - Jeri from storytellingmatters.wordpress.com

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Charlie Waterman is eighteen and until he is assaulted by a cat figurine and wakes up with a tail, he is boringly normal. Seven great Spirits guard the universal Balance against the forces of chaos and it is time for them to choose new Questors to wield their power and be their mortal advocates. Charlie is supposed to be the Questor of the Cat Spirit, but no one bothered to ask him about it.